Second jury finds Nappi guilty

Thursday

Feb 25, 2010 at 12:01 AMFeb 25, 2010 at 9:38 PM

At a second trial made necessary because the first jury could not agree on a verdict, convicted murderer Donato Nappi was found guilty Friday of illegally possessing a .45-caliber pistol after he had been released from prison and was on parole.

EMERSON CLARRIDGE

At a second trial made necessary because the first jury could not agree on a verdict, convicted murderer Donato Nappi was found guilty Friday of illegally possessing a .45-caliber pistol after he had been released from prison and was on parole.

The jury of eight men and four women deliberated in Herkimer County Court for about 3½ hours.

When the foreman read the verdict, which comes with a 3½- to 7-year prison sentence, Nappi, 67, displayed no physical reaction.

The Old Forge man was taken into custody, and will be held without bail until his sentencing on Monday, March 15.

Christopher Pelli, Nappi's attorney at both trials, said he would appeal.

“He has great fortitude,” Pelli said outside the courtroom. “He’s a strong, strong man, physically and psychologically.”

Nappi faced trial for the same charge earlier this year, but a jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. Judge Patrick L. Kirk then declared a mistrial.

Nappi was charged with third-degree criminal possession of a weapon after a semiautomatic handgun was discovered by police hidden under a bed inside his home in January 2009.

After serving 26 years in prison for his role in the December 1979 murder of Dawn Grillo, Nappi was returned to jail less than seven months after his release.

Nappi was one of three men convicted in the Grillo slaying. She was killed because she did not turn over all of the money she had taken in an insurance check-cashing scheme, according to Observer-Dispatch archives.

During the trial this week, First Assistant District Attorney Scott Klosner’s key witness was again Nappi’s wife, Janice Nappi. After her husband allegedly said he wanted to get his “old gun” back in September 2008, Janice Nappi testified that Donato Nappi finally got his hands on the weapon in December 2008.

How the weapon was obtained, however, still remains unclear.

Pelli argued that Janice Nappi’s primary handling of the weapon suggests that Donato Nappi never knew about the gun. Instead, Pelli argued, Janice Nappi wanted to set up her husband so he would go back to prison because she was having an affair with Donato Nappi’s longtime friend and burglary partner, Delwright Dyman.